Reason
by Sanes
Summary: Little something that slips in near the end of Sleepers. Spoilers for those who live under rocks and haven't seen the episode.


Tesla lunged for the boy using his preternatural speed, charging the de-vamper as he did. Helen watched him slam it into his chest and felt ice shoot down her spine as Chad pulled Nikola downwards, unbalancing the other vampire with the last of his supernatural strength and causing the opposite end of the de-vamper to connect with Nikola's chest. After a second that seemed to last a lifetime the power drained from the device and Tesla dropped it to the ground in shock.

Helen stepped towards the pair but it was too late. She found herself praying that surely Tesla's invention would have a failsafe, to prevent it being used against him. But she knew how Nikola thought only too well, he was too arrogant to have even considered the possibility of his own invention being used against him.

"I, I can't..." Nikola gasped, trying to bring his vampiric nature to the surface only to find an emptiness inside himself where it had rested for so long. Helen watched, a cold dread settling in her stomach as he cast about desperately, panting in shock. Nikola stared at his hands in disbelief and Helen felt her heart breaking for his pain.

"Nikola." She reached out to him but stopped herself; she didn't know what else to say to him. She could only watch her oldest friend helplessly as he realised he'd lost the thing that he felt defined him.

"I can't" Nikola gasped out once more as the realisation settled. He turned to her and she could see the anger in his eyes, anger that she knew he would turn outward. "Well I hope you're all happy now!" he snarled, turning away and looking so absolutely forlorn that Helen wanted nothing more than to embrace him. "I'm ordinary" he bit out, making it sound like the most distasteful thing possible. Shocked silence reined for several seconds, Nikola sat with hunched shoulders and Helen thought for a moment he might cry.

A groan from the blond teen lying before him broke the silence. Helen saw the hatred in Nikola and found herself waiting for the changes she'd watched take him every time it had happened in their one hundred years plus of friendship. He raised his hand as he had a thousand times before but his eyes didn't darken and the teeth and nails didn't appear and it was seemed so unnatural to her. He stopped, looking at his hand for a second before he growled and raised his fist, slamming it down into the boys face.

The shock of it allowed him to get in a second punch before she and Will reacted, surging forward to pull him up away from the defenceless Chad. He struggled for a second before pulling himself upright and demanding that they let him go. Once it was clear he wasn't going to kill Chuck, Will moved over to the now unconscious boy checking him over.

Helen kept hold of his elbow, wanting to offer comfort but knowing it wouldn't be accepted, his ego was already too wounded. Nikola clutched his hand for a second in pain scowling at it. "I could crack a skull with a punch." he muttered shaking out his smarting fingers then running them through his hair violently, spiking it out of control.

Catching sight of the glass de-vamper at his feet he scowled, raising his leg as though to kick it across the room in anger. Helen pulled him off balance before he could though, "No Nikola, we need it, Laura's still at the Sanctuary." He turned his scowl on her and Helen felt her heart constrict for the pain she could see behind his anger.

Shaking her arm from his Nikola straightened his posture and his suit, recovering his composure before sweeping with his usual grace towards the door. The boy that Tesla had left laying in the doorway stared up at him fearfully and Nikola aimed a kick at his ribs on the way past, curling him into a foetal position as the wind was driven out of him.

"Will," Magnus turned towards him, "Can you handle this? I have to go after him." Will nodded immediately and gestured for her to go as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Helen barely glanced at him before she scooped up the de-vamper and ran for the door calling back instructions to collect all of Nikola's research, equipment and blood.

Helen caught up with Nikola on the ground floor as he slammed the door of the building open and swept out into the street. He glanced around once before heading directly for Helens' jeep. She called his name as she followed, giving in and grabbing his arm as they reached the vehicle. "Nikola talk to me." Helen implored him.

"What do you want me to say Helen? Oh well? C'est la vie? One day you're a vampire the next your," he paused for a second swallowing and glancing away, "human." Helen watched him in silence until he sighed, his shoulders slumping. He tilted his head back to look up at the sky, as though looking to the God she knew he didn't believe in. "Helen, I'll deal with this. I'm the most resilient person we know." Looking back down at her he grinned, "And I am a genius. This, I _can_ be fixed."

She couldn't help but smile at his familiar egotism but she could still see the worry behind it, she could feel it in herself. "Nikola..." She knew that the chances of them ever returning him to his Abnormal state were slim to none but found herself unable to shatter his small hope. They stared at each other for a second before she nodded and gave him a fragile smile.

"You're right," Helen agreed, trying to convince herself as well as him, " when we work together there's nothing we can't do, the two greatest scientific minds of on the planet and we've done it before already."

"The work of a weekend." Nikola laughed waving his hands theatrically before taking hold of hers, "Ohh Helen, remember Oxford? The joys of new knowledge? Our experiments?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her almost suggestively. "The time we set the second floor laboratory on fire? The happiest times of my life."

Helen couldn't help but smile at the memory, "I remember my father's face when I told him, cost him a fortune. I also seem to remember you being sentenced to four months scrubbing toilets after that?" Helen laughed at the mental image.

"Ahhh, never happened though." He tutted, wagging a finger at her. "I paid young Nigel handsomely for that one." He pointed to her accusingly "And I covered for you as well, couldn't have let those stuffy disapproving professors know that little miss perfect knocked over that Bunsen burner could we?"

"Of course not," Magnus huffed, "especially considering that you pushed me!"

"Helen Magnus you liar!" He exclaimed, pulling her closer to him and dropping her hand on his shoulder, slipping his to her waist as he caught her other "We were dancing..."

"And the same as now it wasn't willingly on my part!" She protested making a half hearted effort at getting away from him. He simply shushed her and pulled her closer again humming the same song as he had the first time. Helen let him win and enjoyed the moment and the memory it evoked of a simpler time, before their transformations.

She looked up at Tesla with a grin about to tease him for his lack of ability to carry a tune but stopped herself on seeing his expression. He was staring into space with a slight smile, seeing it warmed her heart so she held her tongue. Having known Nikola for over a century she could see the difference in his eyes with his renewed humanity, it was like her old friend had come home.

It was a bittersweet feeling though, Helen knew how much his vampirism meant to Nikola and that he wouldn't rest until they'd tried everything. That thought soured the moment for her slightly and she pulled away from him, startling him from memory.

"You couldn't carry a tune then either, could you?" She joked to cover as she slipped from him and to the driver side door of the vehicle.

Nikola huffed indignantly, "It's you who lacks the musical ear, i've told you many times!" he retorted as they opened their respective doors and climbed in. Helen could tell that the easiness of their moment had gone though as Nikola settled and turned to shoot her a forced grin. "Right, time to eliminate the last of my bastard children then. I did waste so much of my time on those spoilt brats."

Helen felt her stomach tighten as she started the car and pulled off, this would be hard for Nikola she knew. He'd eventually have to accept it though, he didn't have eternity to brood anymore. That thought stopped Helen cold, Nikola had lost his immortality.

She glanced over at her friend where he leaned his head against the window brooding. He would age now, and he could and would eventually die. The realisation was like a punch in the gut to Helen.

Nikola was her oldest friend and a constant that she'd never considered losing from a long life full of inevitable goodbyes. The thought upset her more that she ever thought it could. If Nikola left, not only would she lose her friend, she'd be the only one left.

Suddenly Helen Magnus was facing eternity alone.


End file.
